Fabulous felines, inscrutable in all things, appear in various religious traditions, and what follows is merely a brief selection of some of the many beliefs and customs that they have placed their pawprints on.
In Norse mythology the goddess Freya’s chariot is pulled by a pair of cats (kõttum tveim in Old Iceland). The sagas did not recount how easily it was to train cats (especially a pair of tomcats) for this task. Freya was the goddess of love and fertility, and cats have often been associated with the latter. In the Prose Edda, the god Thor is challenged by the giant Útgarða-Loki to pick up the giant’s cat in his hall. Thor tries with all his might to pick up the large grey cat but is unable to make the cat budge. With the greatest of efforts, Thor manages at last to get the cat to lift one of his paws. The giant finally reveals that the cat was an illusion, and was really Jörmungandr, the great serpent that encircles the world, which is why Thor could not pick it up.
The maneki-neko (‘beckoning cat’) of Japan is a figurine of a cat with either the right or left paw raised, although both paws can be raised as well. This is the traditional way of beckoning someone, not waving as is often assumed. The figure is believed to bring good luck and can be purchased in assorted colours, although the colours of a white Calico Bobtail cat are the most traditional. The figure often comes with a belled collar, a reference to cats kept as pets. Beckoning cats appeared during the Edo period (1600-1868) and there are various stories regarding their origins. One legend claims the local ruler, daimyo Ii Naotaka, avoided a lightening bolt thanks to the beckoning paw of Tama, the abbot’s cat, who suggested that he take shelter during a fierce thunderstorm at the Gōtoku-ji temple in Tokyo. Grateful for this feline intercession the daimyo donated money to the temple, which is now has thousands of maniki-neko statues on display, all cheerfully beckoning visitors.
An Indian tale collected by the French antiquarian Nicolas Fréret tells of Patripatan, a cat visiting heaven. The story went that there was an argument between a brahmin and a penitent regarding who was the most virtuous. King Salamgam, trying to choose between the two, suggested that each should prove their virtue. The brahmin said he could journey to heaven and get a flower from a tree there, which he promptly did. The penitent said that he was so virtuous he could send his cat to do the same thing. So Patripatan his cat ascended to heaven. There he came a great favourite with a goddess, becoming quite portly thanks to all her tempting treats. He ended up staying for three hundred years, as his divine friend did not want to him to leave. While he was absent, the entire country did not age, awaiting his return. Patripatan finally returned from heaven on a throne, with not with a mere flower but with an entire branch covered in blossoms.
There are no references to cats in the Hebrew Bible but depictions of them under Seder tables appear in many medieval Haggadot. The Haggadah is the set ritual text that is communally read during the Jewish Seder, the feast that marks the beginning of the festival of Passover, commemorating the Exodus from Egypt. No bread or leavened food must be eaten or kept in the house during the festival. In the Pesahim tract of the Babylonian Talmud (commentary on Jewish law) there is a long discussion on what one should do if a mouse turns up with a bread crumb in its mouth. The problem it seems was solved with cats! Medieval Jewish texts depict cats appearing helpfully under the table during the Seder, ready to consume any breadcrumb carrying rodents that might appear!
The New Testament is similarly devoid of cat references, a situation which Gideon Jasper Richard Ouseley (1834-1906) resolved to set to right. Deciding that the Bible lacked suitable references to animal rights and vegetarianism, his two causes, the former clergyman claimed that he had “discovered” a long-lost early Christian text. It was serialised in The Lindsey and Lincolnshire Star and purposed to have come from a Tibetan monastery. Ouseley’s invented text included tales of Jesus telling off people who were being nasty cats and in another feeding a hungry cat. In Ouseley’s version of the Nativity, naturally there was a cat snoozing by the manger!
Despite popular belief to the contrary, there was never widespread Church-sanctioned persecution of cats during the European Middle Ages. They were widely kept as pets and valued as mousers during the medieval period. In England, anchorites who had taken a vow to be enclosed in a small cell adjacent to a church were allowed to keep a cat in their cells but no other pet. Nunneries would often attempt ban sisters from keeping pet cats and dogs, usually without success.
Cats have always been respected in Islam as they are considered to be ritually pure (taahir). Food that they have eaten can be consumed and water that cats have drunk can still be used for ritual ablutions (wudu). They are permitted to meander in homes and mosques at will, and there is even a long tradition of cats seeking the presence of people in prayer. The Prophet Mohammed was partial to cats in various stories. In one, he cut off his robe when getting up, rather than disturb his sleeping pet. In another, he gave cats the ability to land on their feet after his own cat had enthusiastically welcomed him home. Some accounts claim this cat was called Muezza and would sleep on his lap while he gave sermons. Abu Huraira (‘Father of the Cats’) was one of the Prophet’s companions, noted for his affection for felines, and was given the name because he was spotted once with a purring kitten in his sleeve.
In Ancient Egypt cats were revered, although they were not worshipped for themselves but for the deities they represented. The Egyptians word for cat was miu or mii (femine miit): ‘she or he who mews’. Regarding religion, Pakhet (‘she who scratches’), Bastet and Sekhmet were all lioness goddesses, with cats present in their temples. Over time, Sekhmet came to represent the fierce lion aspect of the deity, while Bastet symbolised protection, fertility, and peace. By the 22nd dynasty (c. 945–715 BC) Bastet was portrayed with a cat-head or as a cat, and she became one of the widely worshipped deities in Egypt, reaching her peak during the Ptolemaic period (305 to 30 BC).
The Greek historian Herodotus (5th c. BC) remarked on the status of cats in Egypt, who would be embalmed and buried on their death, with members of the household shaving off their eyebrows as a sign of mourning. Another Greek historian, Diodorus of Sicily, visited Egypt in the 1st C. BC, observing how certain animals such as cats and ibises, symbols of deities, were respected: “For the cats and mongooses they break up bread into milk and calling them with a clucking sound set it before them, or else they cut up fish caught in the Nile and feed the flesh to them raw.” When they died, they would be embalmed and buried. If taken on a foreign military expedition, any cats that were captured by the enemy, would be ransomed. If anyone killed a cat, whether intentionally or by accident, they would be killed, often by an enraged mob. It was usual practice, on spotting a dead sacred animal to run away and starting lamenting that the animal had been found dead, to avoid a furious reaction from one’s neighbours. While in Egypt, Diodorus witnessed a Roman resident murdered by a mob for accidentally killed a cat. Pharoah Ptolemy XII sent his officials to the house to try to save the man, but neither their presence nor the fear of Rome deterred the angry crowd. Statuettes and amulets of cats were produced in huge numbers, and apart from mummifying their own cats, devotees could purchase at temples a mummified cat that would be buried on the site and ‘taken care’ of by the goddess. Studies have shown that a large proportion of these animals were very young cats and had had their necks broken. It has been theorised that temple kittens were regularly culled, and their mummies sold to pilgrims. Cat cemeteries have been discovered on many sites connected to feline deities.
About the author
Dr Kathleen Walker-Meikle (PhD History, UCL) is a specialist in the history of animals and medicine in the medieval and early modern period, She is the author of several books, including Medieval Pets’(Boydell & Brewer, 2021 paperback), Cats in Medieval Manuscripts (British Library Publications, 2019), Dogs in Medieval Manuscripts (British Library Publications, 2020), The Cat Book: Cats of Historical Distinction (Bloomsbury, 2015), The Dog Book: Dogs of Historical Distinction (Bloomsbury, 2014), The Horse Book: Horses of Historical Distinction (Bloomsbury, 2017).
